Quick Reviews

It's been a while since I last wrote a post, and there have been a few films that I haven't reviewed, so I thought I'd write a brief summary of them.

First Man (2018)

Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong and Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong. It's been said that it's not a film about the Moon Landing, but rather a film about Neil Armstrong that culminates in the Moon Landing. That's pretty much like saying that Field of Dreams wasn't a film about baseball. First Man has space travel all the way through it - even before Armstrong sets foot inside a space capsule, the film makes it clear that he's already 200,000 miles away from anyone else, isolated in his grief at the death of his daughter.
Emotional drama aside, the film also offers a decent look at the behind-the-scenes events leading up to the landing, and despite knowing the outcome, the depiction of landing is an incredible, nail-biting, claustrophobic sequence.

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Drenched in atmosphere, a crime thriller that doesn't really hit the mark because the script wasn't really up to scratch. The first act feels very much like a stage play, which opens up a little with a story that's slightly reminiscent of early-Tarantino (characters in love with their own voices; chaptered, non-linear structure). The characters never really gel, and the multiple narratives don't so much entwine as get tangled together messily.

Columbus (2017)

If you like films where two characters wander about a town talking about modern architecture as they come to terms with grief and life choices then this is absolutely the film for you. Like the previous year's Paterson, it's the cinematic equivalent of taking a pleasant walk.


The Wife (2018)

Feminist politics and the literary world collide in a drama that looks at the difference between perception an reality in the disintegrating marriage between a Nobel-nominated author and his wife who "doesn't write". Filmed mostly in Glasgow passing for Stockholm, there's a lot to like about the film, but ultimately it didn't feel as if it packed quite enough of a punch.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

A film that is all over the place. An excellent central performance from MacKenzie Foy, some decent dialogue, a couple of lovely shots of Victorian London that demonstrate some understanding of the basic geography of the city rather than being the usual Disney mash-up, all suggested the film was off to a good start - but then it descends into pseudo-Labyrinth meanderings through an incoherent fantasyland.
It's entertaining enough, particularly if you can see the fun in Keira Knightley's helium-voiced, demented sugarplum fairy - but too incoherent in its internal mythology.

Widows (2018)

Well-directed, decently plotted, although the surprises are well-worn (they pulled something similar in the first Mission: Impossible film - that's even assuming you didn't see the Widows TV  series on which the film was based). Word of warning - the film goes from quiet to very loud very quickly in the early scenes, so probably not for those who are easily startled.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Compelling central performance from Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, and a great soundtrack. The rise and fall and rise again narrative is either a (mostly) fun and fascinating look behind the scenes, or a disjointed mess depending on how you want to approach the film.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

There's either too much going on in this film, or not enough. Some brilliant sequences, some fascinating but too short expansions of Rowling's Wizarding World, versus some overlong, dull talky bits.
Unlike the first in the series, the film suffers from not feeling like it can stand on its own. Although Fantastic Beasts 1 had unfinished business with its villains, it told a complete emotional story for the protagonists. Film number 2 upends all of that and leaves pretty much all of the plot threads dangling. The only piece of business that's actually resolved is the answer to a question that we didn't know needed to be asked, and which didn't really hold any great emotional impact - except perhaps to the die hard fans.
That said, I still enjoyed it and will no doubt go and see it again.

Robin Hood (2018)

The last version of Robin Hood I had seen (the one with Russell Crowe) left me with very low hopes for this one. Robin Hood is one of those characters whose tale is told and retold so many times, that it's difficult to get excited about what amounts to another cover version of the same old story with each new creative team declaring they have some new way of looking at the character, that usually amounts to the camera lenses being coated with an extra layer of mud.
However, with no pretensions to high-art, the latest version of Robin Hood manages to do something that Crowe's endeavour missed: be fun.
It's completely cheesy, ridiculously contrived, the saccharine opening sequence really doesn't set the mood at all well, but from the Iraqi War-styled Crusades sequence, the film kept me entertained throughout.
It's less a retelling of The Adventures of Robin Hood, and more Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves meets The Mark of Zorro meets Batman Begins with the anachronistic production approach being along the lines of First Knight meets A Knight's Tale with a bit of Lord of the Rings thrown in for good measure.
In other words it's a complete melange of dozens of other influences, which makes it either an unbearable mess, or the best B movies adventure of the year.

The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

Nowhere near up to par with the books of the original Millennium Trilogy, the film manages to be a better piece of ScandiNoir than the recent incoherent adaptation of The Snowman, but its James Bond world-threat storyline doesn't feel appropriate for the original character of Lisbeth Salander.
As a 'Girl' story, it doesn't sit right, but as a Scandi-Jason Bourne-style thriller, it's entertaining enough.